3:29 I personally prefer paying up front for preordered items I get, just because I know that when I order it I have the money while it’s no guarantee I’ll have it when it’s paid at a later date. I usually watch my bank for these things, but it’s still a preference and something I worry about lol
One strategy for convention figure buying is going online to find the same figure, then compare online prices. I bought a $200 figure for $200 dollars so I know I bought it at its usual price.
Lots of good points here, good stuff. Cons are where I buy most of my figures though. I've usually been pretty lucky with stuff like that. My Mega House Chie, for instance, only bit for $150 at AWA but when I wanted to buy her 2-3 years ago she was $300+ online. Just depends on what you're out for, I suppose. Biggest thing I can think of when buying at a con, though, is checking multiple booths for your figure of choice. Even if it's only $5-$10 you can end up saving yourself some money with a bit of extra looking around.
Jean Clod definitely true, more often than not you can find booths selling figures at more competitive prices if there are a few booths that have the same item
For ami ami, the grade B stuff, does it come slightly dirty? Or literally untouched? BTW this vid was super useful, thanks bro, even tho this is an old vid
hill 2000 the only difference I’ve ever noticed with B grade figures on amiami is that the seal is broken so they are technically “opened” most times the figure has never even been removed from the blister. Every B figure I have ever gotten has been undistinguishable from brand new. Thanks! Glad you found it helpful :)
Mandarake is reputable, bought a few opened/unopened box figures from it, like Bandai’s SOC MinervaX & DiananA, Ka signature Monster Hunter Liolieus, all in excellent condition. Agree, if you buy from different Mandarake stores each purchase is treated as a different order with its own shipping charges😔. Well, unlike Amiami, Mandarake lists shipping charges before you place the order so there’s that. You definitely can score some good deals with Hobby Search Japan, I also bought a few brand new figures from them. I’m not interested in Otakumode because it has more out of stock listings of what I want than items for sale.
Evening! Have you ever heard of Anime Infinitum[AIM]? Amazon has an Angela Balzac figure from Alphamax for $127 but this AIM place lists her as $34. Too good to be true or a once in a lifetime deal?
Is Crunchyroll something you’d recommend for figure shopping too? I know the prices are higher sometimes but I feel like shipping would be less of a hassle through them at least...
Crunchyroll is a great company, there are however a few issues when buying figures from them. As you mentioned their prices tend to trend a bit higher, that being said the shipping cost to you is drastically reduced since they ship from within the US so things even out a bit there. The other issue I have with them is due to the way they sell figures which involves CR buying them from distributors in JP, then shipping them to the CR warehouse before shipping to you, figures will be delayed by 1-2 months from the time of release to when you receive them. If you don't mind either of those things I think they are a reliable retailer and a fantastic company in general :)
I have only ever bought one thing online,a leaf blade spear,I got it shipped from a state that's like seven states away from my state and the shipping costed about 30 bucks. Why was it 50 bucks for you?
Or if you want to get to the next level you can go to yahoo auctions japan. I got a Dizzy Alter figure for around 4000 yen, normally its around 12,000, in the box, unopened. or the other next level buy a figure lot in yahoo auctions, sell the ones you don't want and just keep the one you were looking for , that way you don't even spend money, in fact, you gain money. on a lot of figures i have i have made around 80% to even 99% in savings
Do you have any experience with jfigure ? I have been looking into getting the Hatsune Miku Nendoroid Jumbo but I can't seem to find it anywhere else for a reasonable pricetag.
New video yay ^^ I only buy at amiami, tho. I also know mandrake, but still didnt buy from them p.p We have cons in Russia, but they in other cities and I dont have money at the time p.p
Hello ^^ I've watched ur video about anime figure 101, and i'm interested to this hobby lol, it's really hard to find place to buy figures in my country, so i'm planning on buying on Amazon maybe, as a starter, can i trust Amazon for anime figures? (I subscribed because I need some guidance lol)
Dominikus Motoh Amazon will usually be fine, especially if being shipped internationally from amazon JP. They’ll probably be a little on the pricier side though :(
Howdy, there !!!! I have had nothing but really excellent experiences buying in HobbySearch (www.1999.co.jp/eng/). Amazing variety of figures (besides N Scale Japanese trains, my other hobby). Frequently they have discounts over regular prices. And also a "fidelity program".... every purchase gives you points you can accumulate to use when you want for purchasing any kind of merchandise in the store. They have a super service, including incredible fast shipping (I have received some of my purchases as fast as.... in 6 days!!!!..... really.... 6 days from Japan to Mexico, where I live!!!!.... and using mail (JP Post + Mexpost), not courier companies like UPS or FedEx, which are more expensive. If they ship to Mexico they can ship any other country in the world.... (well, maybe not to North Korea). In short, HobbySearch is a great option... My recommendation: Give HobbySearch a chance !!!!!!
@@boredom9959 Make sure to check MyFigureCollection for whether bootlegs of what you are ordering exist and try to certify that you are ordering the authentic product
If someone is looking for a figurine from an older anime/video game series where would one go to find those figurines? I tried looking for them at the locations you suggested, but I was unable to find them.
I’ve only started collecting figure’s for about a year now. One problem I’ve run into is the rediculous import costs when buying through zenmarket. Does amiami have high import fees?(I live in europe if that makes a difference)
@@ContainsAnime thanks :D luckily there's a importer in my country that has a wide selection and I only need to worry about import when I want some very specific figure's.
Kelly Rivera it’s dependent on how much/what you order as well as what service you choose. I choose EMS which is the most expensive but also the fastest/most reliable. Something like a single nendoroid will usually be roughly 1500yen but larger figures like scale figures will cost more based on their box size and weight. I have paid as low as 1500-2000yen for a single scale figure but also as much as 6000yen so it’s hard to give a ballpark
Tock46 yeah, I have had great success buying from other members of the community both on MFC and Reddit. The only reason it wasn't mentioned in the video is because it is on a person to person basis so it's hard to make a general statement. Definitely worth it if the person has a good reputation though! Thanks for watching! :)
linhliver I’m fairly certain that AmiAmi ships to Canada. I believe mandarake does as well. If you want a more in depth answer my good friend Jess runs the RU-vid channel Go Figure! And she lives in CA so she’d be more of an authority :)
i have pre-ordered all my figures, got bad figures from used and pre-owned people, then got banned from Amiami because i asked them to cancel a order after the hurrican killed my house. so now i get everything from hobby search (aka) 1999.co.jp . they have a english website and its pretty easy to use, also has a preowned and restock section.
Can anyone help me find a kakyoin noriaki figure? I’m trying to find one for my best friend for her birthday since she loves him and I don’t know if I should trust eBay or not.
I have little money, and I rather have 10 characters I love for the same price as 1 character which is maybe 10% better, so for me... ALIEXPRESSSSSS! Wish is off course also an option, but aliexpress just provides a REALLY pleasant shopping experience in general XD
Well, theyre all bootlegs offcourse, but lets just say you might not see it if i didnt tell you XD or if you would, the difference is still quite small. Noticable, but they still look great XD I absolutely love the 22 cm sebastian scale figure i got of there for €13,50 shipped, as well as my €13,50 20 cm nagito komaeda scale figure as well. Also 2 non scale 15 cm pvc figures (natsu and grey) which look great and were €9,50 *together*, 6 nendoroids, and 3 figmas. They can be a bit harder to put together but i always succeeded inthe end and they generally look good =) Those 13 anime figures put together were about €110,- including shipping. Thats.. Cheap. XD
Edward Elric that certainly is much cheaper lol, I’m very concerned about quality so I’ve always been super mindful of bootlegs but if they look good enough that you like them that’s all that matters in the end :)
I never see anyone talk about HobbySearch on youtube. I perfer them over AmiAmi. Even if they are relativity the same. I would recommend that you look them up.
Howdy, there !!!! I have had nothing but really excellent experiences buying in HobbySearch (www.1999.co.jp/eng/). Amazing variety of figures (besides N Scale Japanese trains, my other hobby). Frequently they have discounts over regular prices. And also a "fidelity program".... every purchase gives you points you can accumulate to use when you want for purchasing any kind of merchandise in the store. They have a super service, including incredible fast shipping (I have received some of my purchases as fast as.... in 6 days!!!!..... really.... 6 days from Japan to Mexico, where I live!!!!.... and using mail (JP Post + Mexpost), not courier companies like UPS or FedEx, which are more expensive. If they ship to Mexico they can ship any other country in the world.... (well, maybe not to North Korea). In short, HobbySearch is a great option... My recommendation: Give HobbySearch a chance !!!!!!
iilovericeLEL I have ordered from Solaris before, I think their prices tend to rank on the higher side. Unfortunately I have very little experience with nippon yasan
@@ContainsAnime take shfiguarts they have US release dates but you can get them a month early if you get it from a Japan retailer like Amiami I want to know if they have specific times of the day that they start preorders
ShowNuffDaKing AmiAmi at least updates their site usually around 11pm-12am EST. That said I have never seen a preorder sell out so fast that one would have to be watching the site precisely when the item goes live
Fabián Chacón I can’t say that I’ve ever ordered from them so I can’t speak from personal experience. I don’t know everything though, they could very well be a great place to buy from 🙂
Dude..........don't tell people to buy figures at cons! That shit is mostly all bootlegs that those people have the nerve to try to sell at regular price
This totally depends on the convention itself, most larger conventions have a no bootleg policy. If your local convention does not have a bootleg policy I wouldn't recommend buying anything from their vendors at all let alone figures. This is definitely something I should have expressed in video.
@Contains Anime! Are you sure about otakumode ? They have awful reviews on trustpilot... Seems like they are literally scamming people with their automatic recurring system.
They somewhat recently made a rather large change to their rewards program that is not very consumer friendly and rubbed some of their loyal customers (myself included) the wrong way. That aside they still do have a user friendly site, that sells authentic goods, so they remain part of the conversation. But I would steer clear of their paid membership service.
@@ContainsAnime I see. Are you referring to the Tom premium thing ? That's when the automatic recurring system happens right ? I wanna give this website a try but i don't wanna get scammed.
Tokyo Otaku Mode and Crunchyroll both have US warehouses so some of their stock is shipped from the US but most of the time anime figures require you to import. All the sites listed are completely in english and foreigner friendly though :)
@@ContainsAnime He was the first thing that popped up in my head the moment i saw ur face. ur not that simmilar but u have some facial stucture similarities that r as bright as the sun btw. good video have been wanting to get some figures however theres no cons in my country so this helps a lot.
TCO IM I don’t have very much experience purchasing from hobby search so I can’t outwardly recommend it. I’m sure it’s a perfectly reputable site from what I’ve heard but unfortunately I lack the personal experience.